Drammeh, you see, folks cannot hide behind Yaya's tribalism to push a tribal
agenda themselves.  You can rest assured that I will confront any tribalist
on the L or Post, including Yaya.  I think any with an ounce of common sense
should be able to differentiate between an individual head of state who is
tribalist from the calling his ethnic group tribalist.  That in itself shows
the tribalism in themselves.  One can list 100 ways Yaya is a tribalist and
would be spot on.  However, how does that turn into, therefore, all Jolas
are tribalist?  When Yaya used religion to divide Gambians, the conscious
among us assigned blame to where it lies - on Yaya's feet.  That is because
Yaya as an individual Muslim does not speak or act for all Muslims in the
Gambia.  Now, is this difficult to understand, especially for seemingly
intelligent folks?  I will meet any Gambian half way if they want to use
tribalism to unfairly paint any group with malice.  Besides, the readers are
not ignorant and can see through those hiding behind the tribal shroud.  And
yes, we would view any a tribalist if they act like one, so they can
continue howling.

Chi Jaama

Joe Sambou

>From: Momodou Drammeh <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: AN APPEAL TO ALL GAMBIA L SUBSCRIBERS
>Date: Sat, 3 Apr 2004 09:20:31 -0800
>
>Dear members,
>  I am hereby writing to you to appeal to all of you if
>we can stop personal attacks and tribal remarks.
>  I was really scared when I read about some comments
>which were tribal in nature.
>  We all join The Gambia L as an intellectual forum
>where economic, political, religious and other
>important issues are discussed.The Gambia L is not is
>gossip centre, it is and should be an educational
>forum, let us not get carried away by sentiments and
>be very careful as to what we do or say.
>Whatever we say on the net or any other forum will be
>in the records and sooner or later we will be judge by
>what we say or do.
>we have two options either to let history take a
>disastrous path or shape the course of history towards
>the right path.
>  In AD1700 it was normal for white people to be racist
>even though they will not not do it publicly, today
>there children are so ashamed and their ancestors part
>in slavery.
>   The purpose of history is to learn the lessons of
>the past and we let history repeat itself in vice then
>we might be very sorry for ourself. We will then let
>both ourself and our future children down.
>  The Gambia is country of tolerance and is not divided
>by tribal demarcations and tribal values or allegiance
>have no place in The Gambia.
>   None of belong to any tribe. We only speak these
>languages as a means of communication and nothing els
>e.
>  Now let us look at Sierra Leone, there are people
>with the same surnames as Gambians and none of them
>belong to to tribes found in The Gambia. So in
>consequence there is no place for tribal remarks, it
>never had, and has no place and will never have a
>place in The Gambia.
>  We do not all have to support the same ideology, but
>it should not be on the basis of tribes which do not
>exist in the first place
>  Let me give examples, The Late Alh Momodou Musa Njie
>is considered to be a Fula, The Late Pierre Njie is
>considered a wollof and Alh Musa Njie A sarahule. All
>these shared the same surname this means they may have
>some connection. The reason all these people speak
>different languages may be because of different
>geographical settlements.
>  Now where do we go from here. Are tribal statements
>necessary for a country of just one million people. I
>hope not.
>  People like E F Small could have been anything they
>wanted under the colonialist but he gave up all that
>for a common voice of all Gambians, such a man will
>not be resting in peace if He is aware that Gambians
>even though this is very few are making tribal
>comments.
>   It does not matter what we call our selves we are
>all related in The Gambia.
>   What I would to see The government outlawing names
>like Boy Pullo, Musa Sarahulay, etc.
>  There is a need in the curriculum of all Gambian
>Schools to learn all local languages up to high school
>level. Teachers should be encourage to let pupils know
>that they are Gambians and belong to to no tribe.
>  Gambians, I once again appeal to all of you let us
>trade in knowledge and stop trading in insults.
>  I am very optimistic that we can all learn from each
>other and argue in an intellectual way without
>resorting to inflammatory languages.
>  I know very well that the best way to earn the
>respect and love of others is to demonstrate
>intellectual maturity and complete honesty and not the
>anger and fist that we show.
>  Most of the time we shoe our anger and frustration
>the desired ambition always boomerangs
>  While I am optimistic that this request will be
>highly regarded by all of you, I am very much sure
>that this is honourable path to follow
>
>__________________________________
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